By By JESSICA SIEFF / Niles Daily Star
It seems there will be plenty to discuss when the Southeast Berrien County Landfill Authority meet again, following the ousting of former chairman of the board Richard Haigh, Friday.
The vote to remove Haigh from his position, during Friday's special session, came following a request by Buchanan City Manager Meg Mullendore that Haigh apologize for comments he'd made regarding possible revenue that will come from an electrical generation plant being constructed at the landfill. The South Bend Tribune reported Haigh, as saying he felt revenues should be directed toward closure costs at the landfill.
Some had felt otherwise.
The landfill is owned collectively by both the cities of Niles and Buchanan, along with Niles Township, Buchanan Township and Bertrand Township.
Each of those municipalities "assume liability" for the landfill, Mullendore, said.
Haigh reportedly said that he felt the suggestion of revenue going back to those municipalities came from officials who simply were not interested in being responsible for their own budgets.
A vote of 6-3 was all it took to remove Haigh from his position, a vote followed that saw Mullendore as the new chairwoman of the board.
"I think the reaction for the most part, for the majority … I don't know how to put it but relief…," Mullendore said Tuesday.
Her hope for both board and landfill, she said, is to see both entities turn into "a smooth running organization."
"That we (as a board) are in fact, doing what our charge is," she added. That charge being to act in oversight and not get involved in day to day operations.
As for the revenue issue, Mullendore said, "that definitely is a board discussion… I don't think any of us is in this huge rush to make decisions."
"I don't think the revenue issue is going to pop up on the next agenda," Niles City Administrator and former board member Terry Eull said.
There are, he said, other issues "at the landfill that are important, that need to be addressed operational wise."
Eull added when the issue of where revenues from the plant will go does make it to the board's agenda he believes that members will "do the research" to make their decision.
When asked how she felt about her appointment to the board, Mullendore said she "was open to it" and added that she believes all members of the board and their respective municipalities "have a very vested interest" in how the landfill is run.
Her opinion is that things overall had become very "lax" and strayed away from oversight. Any publicly owned entity should be held to a "higher level of scrutiny," she said.
"I have a propensity to being very rigid with rules and regulations," Mullendore said.
With completion of the plant scheduled for this spring, it would seem there would be plenty of work to do and plenty of discussion on the landfill's overall operation – and future.
"We need to have some structure," Mullendore said.